Monday, February 7, 2011
Lost Memphis Visiting Memphis in 1940? Then Use This Guide.
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:10 PM
Some of today's top draws aren't listed of course, such as Graceland or The Dixon Gallery and Gardens or FedExForum.
But many of the "old classics" are there, including the Memphis Zoo, the Mississippi River, various parks, and other sights-to-see.
What's interesting, at least to me though, are all the things listed in this 70-year-old brochure that have vanished. Among them: the Municipal Auditorium ("built at a cost of $2,000,000") , the Cossitt Library, the Goodwyn Institute Library, Sienna College (when it was still on Vance), and the Fairgrounds Casino Ballroom ("dancing in season three nights a week").
Then there's the whole paragraph on downtown movie theaters: "There are 30 theaters in Memphis with a total seating capacity of 43,959. Modern community theaters with the very latest equipment may be found in the suburban communities of the city. A list of the downtown theaters":
• Loew's State (152 South Main)
• Orpheum Theater (197 South Main)
• Malco Palace Theater (81 Union Avenue)
• Strand Theater (138 South Main)
• Warner Theater (52 South Main).
Did you notice those names? The present-day Orpheum was called the Orpheum before it became the Malco. Boy, is that confusing! And, if this brochure is correct, Loew's Palace (currently the site of Parking Can Be Fun) was originally called the Malco Palace.
continued ...
Then you have the golf courses. The main ones are still here, but what intrigues me are two listed in the brochure:
• McLean-Vollentine Golf Club — 9-hole public course located on North McLean, one block north of Vollentine.
• Cherokee Trail Golf Course — 9-hole public course located on Pigeon Roost Road, about 3 miles east of Parkway and Lamar.
I have to admit that I'm not familiar with either of these two long-vanished golf courses. I'm pretty sure the first one is now the site of the University Cabana apartment complex (or whatever it's called these days), but I need to explore and find out just where Cherokee Trail was located.
Finally, the attractions include a list of swimming pools. First, those located outdoors:
• Clearpool — U.S. Highway 78
• East End Swimming Pool — 2016 Madison Avenue
• Harbin's Swimming Pool — Hernando Road
• Maywood — U.S. Highway 78
• Municipal Swimming Pool — Mid-South Fairgrounds
• Rainbow Lake — U.S. Highway 78
Isn't it strange that in one of the hottest places in the country, not a single one of these old swimming pools has survived?
And then there are the indoor pools:
• Catholic Club — 185 Adams Avenue
• DeVoy Athletic Club — Jefferson at Front
• Nineteenth Century Club — 1433 Union Avenue
• YMCA — 251 Madison Avenue
• YWCA — 196 Monroe Avenue
Out of all those, the only pool left is at the Downtown YMCA. Heck, I never knew the Nineteenth Century Club even had a pool at all.
There's lots more in the old brochure — including a list of defunct industries, mainly related to the cotton industry — but I'll save those for another day.
Comments (13)
Showing 1-13 of 13
I recall my mom saying that the neighborhood to the east and north of the old Baron Hirsch Synagogue on Vollentine used to be a golf course, and if you look at it, the houses in that area are all sort of late '40s-early '50s suburban style, unlike the 1920s- and '30s-era bungalows that dominate that part of Midtown. So the timing and location would be about right for her to have been referring to the McLean-Vollintine Golf Club.
like
dislike
I bet you're right, Beverly. That whole neighborhood definitely has a more modern look and "feel" than the areas surrounding it. I'm surprised I've never heard of this golf course before now, though.
3 miles east of Parkway and Lamar — sounds like the vicinity of Audubon Park to me.
I never knew Pigeon Roost Rd. flew that far north. And Barf is correct, I just checked on Google Maps — 3 miles east of Parkway and Lamar is Audubon Park. Which would make Pigeon Roost Rd what? Cherry Rd?
Could the Cherokee Trail Golf Course have been at the site of the Cherokee Bowling Lanes on Lamar? You would be going southeast on Lamar from Parkway (or am I completely turned around?). This is fantastic, Vance. It gives me something to do (other than working on my taxes like I should) by looking up all these fabulous places. Thanks!
The main thing that intrigues me: There was a dancing season? When and why only a season?
Okay, here's what I know. For one thing, Pigeon Roost Road is the old name for Lamar, since it originally led to a clump of woods outside of town where millions of passenger pigeons roosted before we hunted them to extinction. There is still a short stretch of road called "Pigeon Roost" near Winchester. And it's nowhere near Cherry. I've never heard of Cherry being called Pigeon Roost.
A few months ago, when I did the piece on Al's Golfdom, the Fisters told me that one thing that drew them to Memphis was the lack of golf facilities here. The "Cherokee Driving Range out on Lamar" had just closed, they said. Note that they said it was on Lamar, not 3 miles east of it, but at the same time, they didn't say "Cherokee TRAIL" and besides they were talking about a driving range, not a golf course. So I just threw that in here to confuse you.
A 1940 Memphis city directory does not list any Cherokee Trail Golf Course, but it does list the McLean-Vollentine one, and says it is "on McLean, one block north of Vollentine" which would indeed put it in the vicinity of the former synagogue. And an aerial view of that entire area convinces me that's just where it was. All the surrounding neighborhoods are too old.
Finally, the 1940 phone book listing for "golf courses" shows that a place called "Stop and Sock" was located at 3080 Poplar, which is pretty much where Chickasaw Oaks Mall is today. That's certainly an odd name for a golf course, or even a driving range, for that matter. Does anybody remember this?
The Twentieth Century Club did indeed have a swimming pool. When I was growing up in Midtown in the 1950s, we purchased passes for the whole summer to swim in the outdoor pool that took up the entire back yard behind the club.
The shallow end was closest to the building and the large deep end was at the back of the lot. Separate entrances behind the building led to the men and women's changing rooms in the basement of the club.
What was distinctive about the pool was that it had swastikas in the tiles every few feet on the side of the pool about a foot below the edge of the pool. I am would think that this means that the pool was built before 1930 when the swastika was just an American Indian symbol. I can remember nothing to indicate that the pool had ever been indoors or covered.
I think they filled in the pool in the 1960s rather than make expensive repairs that were needed.
Vance has talked about the wonderful memories of swimming at Maywood, and I have the same memories about swimming at the Twentieth Century Club.
Cherokee Golf Course was near Lamar and Prescott. This was east of the Lamar Drive-In and the world-famous Whirlaway Club. The course closed in the early '60s and they eventually built the Treasury Department Store and Cherokee Heights subdivision.
Wasn't the Cherokee Golf Course built by the same gentleman that developed Wyndyke? I believe his name was Earl Dykema. He sold the course in 1962 and began developing Wyndyke Country Club.
As a couple of others have reported awreddy, it was Cherokee Golf Course in the '50s and '60s, not Cherokee Trail Golf Course, and it was straight out Lamar. I believe anon has its whereabouts right.
What is interesting about the swimming pools is that the fanciest one, Maywood, was actually located on Highway 78 just across the state line in Mississippi. And instead of a concrete rim it had a beach of imported white sand! Three pools on Lamar were strung together like pearls -- from west to east (actually, northwest to southeast) Rainbow, Clearpool, and Maywood.
Of course, Pigeon Roost Road is Lamar. It followed the ridge from Mississippi that the RR was built on. Keep on into the city and you can see that it included Marshall and Alabama streets. Cherokee golf course was as above, Lamar and Prescott and occupied all the land north west of that location behind the old lamar Drive in. Maywood is still there just over the MS border. The lake is there but the pool has been filled in and houses built on it.
